Oppo F1s Review: Only for ‘Selfie Freaks’!

It all started when a drunken man in Australia posted his selfie photos on Facebook, which apparently went viral. Since then, the word selfie has become an integral part of many humans life, thanks to the growing technology.

These days, each and every smartphone is coming with a USP to stand out in the market. One such aspect, where some manufacturers are trying to get into their sleeves and deliver a good smartphone is the ‘Selfie Camera’ segment. And, taking the lead in this segment is the Chinese phone-maker- ‘Oppo’.

There isn’t much to say about the company as it has already made a mark in the country with their previous selfie-centric devices- Oppo F1 and Oppo F1 Plus. Following these smartphones, we’re now offered with the new Oppo F1s and is priced in the mid-range segment.

As seen with the other Oppo smartphones released this year, the Oppo F1s also comes with the same USP, which is the 16MP front-facing snapper. Read out the full review to know more about how the Oppo F1s fares against other smartphones in the same price bracket.

Oppo F1s Review: An iPhone Replica

First things first, the Oppo F1s looks exactly like the two-year-old iPhone 6 and we always ended up saying whose iPhone is this. It was the same case with the previous generation Oppo smartphones as well, thanks to the industry lead- Apple. When compared to Oppo’s previous smartphone, the Oppo F1 Plus, the Oppo F1s is slightly thicker at 7.4mm, which is 0.8mm thicker than the F1 Plus.

However, the thickness of the smartphone doesn’t effect it in overall handling. It feels light at 160 grams, but cannot be manageable with a single hand because of its large 5.5-inch display. Added to the advantage is the uni-metal body which made the smartphone look more premium.

Rounding off the smartphone, there is nothing fancy this time around. You can see the regular button placements with the volume rockers on the left and the power and SIM ejector tool placed at the right side of the smartphone. That being said and done, the buttons are very tactile and responsive. On the front part, there are the three capacitive buttons, which are backlit and the home button comes integrated with the fingerprint sensor.

On the rear, there is a 13MP camera sensor which is followed by a single tone LED flash. And, the prominent antenna bands can be seen below the camera sensor. On the whole, there is nothing fancy with the design of the smartphone, but it does look premium when taken into hands.

Oppo F1s Review: The display doesn’t look like a 720p panelAs said earlier, there is a 5.5-inch display on the smartphone, which is a 720p panel and translates to a pixel density of 267 PPI. On paper, the display seems to be a letdown because these days budget smartphones are packing FHD panels. But, that isn’t the case when it comes to real life. Oppo really did a great job as the overall color reproduction and viewing angles are more than fine. That said, the display is heavily reflective and as a result, it has poor sunlight legibility.

It is worth admitting that the display is not the best one, especially considering its price point, but gets the job done.

Mediocre hardware marred by performanceChinese smartphone manufacturers are considerably doing a great job in India and they are offering competitive hardware at a competitive price point. But, that isn’t the case with Oppo. The Oppo F1s comes with a mediocre hardware and packs an octa-core MediaTek MT6750 SoC with all the eight cores clocked 1.5GHz. Graphics on this device is covered by Mali Mali T860 GPU.

On paper, the hardware isn’t the best in business and it reflects in real life usage as well. The mobile comes with 3GB of RAM, which covers up the not so powerful hardware. Games such as Asphalt 8, Nova 3 ran smoothly, but there are some frame drops and at times it might be frustrating for me.

There is some lag while browsing on Google Chrome browser as well and the device shutters while switching between apps in multitasking menu, which is underwhelming. As stated earlier, there is fingerprint sensor embedded into the home button. It is quick in unlocking the smartphone, not as quick as the OnePlus 3, but better than many smartphones in the mid-range segment. One thing which frustrates the users will be the home button needs to pressed all the time to get the fingerprint sensor working same as seen on the iPhones.

Oppo F1s Review: Great Selfie Camera for ShutterbugsThe USP of the Oppo F1s is the 16MP front-facing snapper and the company touts the smartphone as the ‘Selfie Expert’, which is an understatement as it excels in taking good selfie snaps. On the rear, there is a 13MP camera, which is backed by a smaller f/2.2 aperture.

In terms of performance, we must say that the selfie camera is the best in the business as it captures equally good snaps in low light and good light conditions. Color reproduction is more than good, but we noticed that some images in bright sunlight conditions tend to over expose at the edges, but can’t be a problem.

The rear camera isn’t bad either and it performs well in low light conditions as well. Same as the case with front facing camera, the rear camera also exposes the images under bright sunlight conditions.

The camera app is same as the iOS as well. It got some interesting features under its sleeve such as gif creation, double exposure, etc. You can create a gif with the camera app itself and also take some good steady shots with the ‘Double Exposure’ mode.

Overall, as seen with the other Oppo smartphones, the Oppo F1s impressed us with the camera performance.

The iOS look-a-like Color OSIn terms of software, the smartphone comes with the company’s own Color OS version 3.0.0i on top of Android 5.1 Lollipop, which is a disappointment for many as Android Nougat is around the corner, but Oppo still hasn’t managed to deliver Android Marshmallow and there are no words from the company on the software updates as well.

Speaking about the OS, it looks like a replica to the Apple’s iOS with app icons, the multitasking menu is similar to that of the Cupertino giant’s OS. Furthermore, the Color OS has some additional functionalities as well such as screen-off gesture controls, quick gestures, and smart call.

Double tapping on the screen turns on the display and drawing ‘O’ opens the camera apps, etc. One of the interesting features which we like is the ‘Gesture Screenshot’. You can take a screenshot by swiping up or down with your three fingers on the screen. The best part is this feature works on all applications including the third-party downloaded applications from the Google Play Store.

Having said, there is also a single-handed operation mode, which is nothing facing and also a simple mode which enables only limited apps to use from the phone. The Color OS is colorful but looks dated with the Android Lollipop. Oppo needs to quickly update their OS to stand a chance against their rivals.

Battery life doesn’t inspire confidenceOppo packed a larger 3,075mAh battery in the Oppo F1s, which is slightly bigger than their predecessors. However, the battery life doesn’t inspire confidence. We managed to get around 10 hours of battery life with a single charge and the usage includes some heavy gaming for one hour, music listening, YouTube streaming, and some social media app usage such as WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. Do make a note that, we were always connected to Reliance Jio 4G during our review period.

Verdict: Only for shutterbugs

All said and done, the Oppo F1s is a good smartphone with a camera but doesn’t come into competition in terms of battery life and overall performance. If you want a smartphone with incredible selfie camera, then the Oppo F1s is the perfect choice for you, but do make a note that you want to compromise on performance. The major contenders for the smartphone is the latest Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime and Moto G4 Plus, but the latter has some overheating issues. The Oppo F1s is available to purchase from Amazon India for Rs. 17,500 and other offline retail stores are selling it for Rs. 16,000 and lower as well.